The present invention relates generally to the field of electronics and more particularly, to an apparatus for interconnecting electronic circuitry units to each other.
Electronic equipment conventionally comprises an enclosure such as a box-shaped housing containing electronic circuitry. In some instances, a face of such a housing is open so as to provide access to shelves, each of which may be configured with receiving stations for holding electronic circuitry units or circuit packs in a side-by-side relationship. Typically, such units comprise at least one circuit substrate such as a printed circuit board or card carrying a plurality of electrical components. When installed into such a housing, one or more of these units may be connected to electrical connectors mounted within the housing. Each of the electronic circuitry units may provide particularized or dedicated functionality for the end user, and this may permit the user to configure a given housing in a modular or customized manner.
In certain types of electrical equipment, for instance in telecommunications networking equipment, it has been found that port density and functionality may be increased if electronic circuitry units are provided with larger printed circuit board areas, Such units could be accommodated in a modified housing having a larger shelf configuration. One way to achieve this result is to construct a single unit having larger printed circuit board dimensions. However, this approach may typically result in rendering pre-existing equipment obsolete, since an end user with legacy equipment having smaller printed circuit board dimensions will generally not be capable of utilizing legacy electronic circuitry units of smaller dimensions in conjunction with equipment enclosures intended for electronic circuitry units of larger dimensions.
In other types of electronic equipment, it would be desirable to have a mechanism that would permit two or more circuit substrates such as printed circuit boards to be releasably interconnected together. Such an arrangement would allow for various configurations of printed circuit boards to be interchanged with each other in a given enclosure therefor.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a circuit substrate which would permit a first existing circuit substrate of given dimensions to be housed in an equipment enclosure intended for a second existing circuit substrate of larger dimensions than the first existing circuit substrate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism which would permit two or more circuit substrates to be releasably interconnected together.
These and other objects of the present invention will be made apparent by way of the description of the invention which follows.
According to a broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for electrically interconnecting a first circuit substrate with a second circuit substrate, the apparatus comprising: a first electrical connector which is operatively connected to the first circuit substrate, the first electrical connector mating with a corresponding second electrical connector therefor which is operatively connected to the second circuit substrate; a longitudinal guide for receiving a first edge of one of the first circuit substrate and the second circuit substrate, said longitudinal guide being positioned adjacent another edge of another one of the first circuit substrate and the second circuit substrate and extending therealong in a direction substantially parallel thereto, such that said first edge and said another edge are not located on a same substrate of said first circuit substrate and said second circuit substrate; and wherein when said first edge of said one of the first circuit substrate and the second circuit substrate is received therein, relative translation of the first circuit substrate with respect to the second circuit substrate directs the first electrical connector and the second electrical connector together to thereby provide electrical engagement therebetween.
One illustrative application of the present invention entails using an existing printed circuit board or xe2x80x9clegacyxe2x80x9d card, designed for a smaller shelf configuration, with a larger shelf configuration. In this application, a spacer card which attaches to the legacy card is used to increase the overall printed circuit board area of same so that the combined dimensions of the legacy card and a spacer card conform to those of the larger shelf configuration. In the illustrative arrangement, the spacer card has an adapter that allows for insertion of the legacy card into the larger shelf configuration while also permitting electrical connection between the legacy card and the spacer card. This adapter allows the larger shelf configuration to support the legacy card and thus permits the legacy card to be mechanically and electrically compatible with an equipment housing of larger dimensions.